Halstead Templars are hoping their injury problems will ease as they look to put a frustrating couple of weeks behind them at Mersea Island Rhinos on Saturday.

Templars head to the Rhinos for a Greene King Eastern Counties division three south match and will be hoping to re-ignite their season with a strong performance.

Things began well with an encouraging win against Thurston in Halstead’s opening game of the campaign, but they followed that with two called-off fixtures – the first because Stowmarket couldn’t raise a side and then because Templars themselves struggled for personnel against Colchester.

Coach Barry Poulter admitted the stop-start nature of the opening weeks of the season had been frustrating, but he is hoping things will improve now.

He said: “It was a massively positive start that we had against Thurston, especially as we were 15-0 down and came back strongly.

“We had a few regulars out, but the way we came back in the second half was really impressive and it shows the improvements we’ve made, so it was very frustrating to then have two games called off.

“We have been missing players, but other clubs have struggled as well and maybe that’s got something to do with the restructuring of the leagues that has gone on.

“Our problem has been injuries, but we’ve now got players coming back and hopefully we’ll be strong at Mersea."

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